Dell's XPS 13 seems like it's been around forever you can love it or hate it but
it's kind of become a staple in the Ultrabook market and it's a machine
that's one of the best all-around performers out there but the design was
getting a little stale and without much of a change since 2015 it was time for
Dell to do something so they did and it may not look much different from the
outgoing models but the new XPS 13 packs some new and improved changes on the inside
and out though not without a few compromises that may make it a
deal-breaker i'm Robert Rosenfeld with TechnoBuffalo and here's a look at the brand
new and slightly improved XPS 13 okay I'm just gonna say it I really wanted to
like the white and rose gold color combo on this laptop but I just can't bring
myself to say I do it's a clean looking machine and it's definitely grown on me
over the last two weeks I've been using it but to me it makes the bezels as
small as they are around the Infinity edge display stand out in a negative way
and I know I'm in the minority even here at the TB offices and you guys probably
have your own opinion and that's totally okay Dell does make a black and silver
option that is still available but to me it makes what is a beautiful high-end
laptop from Dell look a little less premium opening this thing up we can see
not much has changed inside but that's not necessarily a bad thing we've got
the same keyboard that's still super comfortable to type on and it's pretty
spacious especially considering the whole size of this machine it's also
paired with a trackpad that is great multi-touch support and gesture support
that works well for navigating around the webcam has moved locations from the
side to the center right under the display and it adds an additional IR
camera that makes the whole array Windows Hello compatible so I get why Dell
put the camera there they wanted to keep those bezels around the display as thin
as possible but the placement just drives me nuts and anytime you go to use
it for a video conferencing or a Skype call you'll be reminded why that
compromise for thin bezels did not do you any favors in the camera department
another change on this new model specifically on this white and rose gold
one is a new material used for the wrist rest area the carbon fiber used on the
black model is swapped for a new woven fiberglass material that's
to be light and durable and also withstand some dirt
it feels pretty comfortable though I'm personally more a fan of the feel and
finish of the carbon fiber model it's purely subjective you're getting the
same super high quality display on this model that we saw in the last gen but if
you can spend a little bit more money when you go to purchase I'd highly
recommend paying for the 4k Ultra HD panel over the standard 1080p both get
super bright both look good but that 4k panel just looks exceptionally good the
optional fingerprint reader from last year's model has also swapped locations
it's now sitting on top of the power button which is nice it works well and
if you're not crazy about the Windows Hello camera unlocking it's a good
alternative and now it comes standard on all models which is super nice the guts
of this machine have also been refreshed Intel's latest processor sits inside
giving you the ability to option up an i7 processor and up to 16 gigs of RAM
when you go to buy there's not much to say about performance the XPS handles
everything really well especially considering those specs though you may
see some kind of percentage increase with the processor speed on paper during
day-to-day usage while web browsing and multitasking watching videos it's gonna
be just as speedy as the last gen and if you want to see a little bit more about
how the XPS 13 could handle something like Premiere Pro or gaming you can
click the link down below to check out my other review I did on the last gen
XPS 13 it's all pretty much the same except for when it comes to i/o the
biggest change to this refresh is actually on the side of the machine the
USB type a port and Dell barrel power connector have been replaced with USB
type-c ports there's two of them here both these ports are Thunderbolt 3
compatible so they can be used for data charging and even capable of running an
e-GPU we hooked up a Razer Core at our offices here and it worked almost
completely plug and play on this machine to be a real contender for that best of
both worlds gaming machine you can have your light portable computer that you
can take around with you but come home dock it with one cable and it could
become a more powerful contender for a real gaming PC on the other side
Dell has swapped the SD card port for a microSD card port and there is an
additional non Thunderbolt 3 USB C port and a headphone jack I really do wish
Dell could have kept that full-size SD card port even if it did make the
machine just a little thicker battery life on this new model is still
outstanding that high resolution 4k display will suck a
little bit more power than the 1080P panel but I was easily able to make it
through a 10 hour a day with moderate usage and switching this thing into
extreme power saving mode was able to get me a little bit more juice on the
days I needed it the rest of this laptop is exactly the same as previous models
and again that's not a bad thing the price on the new XPS 13 ranges anywhere
from $999 all the way up to our highest end model that we have here that comes
in just shy of 2,000 bucks in every tier though you're getting a good amount of
performance for your dollar even with the base model having an i5, 4 gigs of
ram and an SSD inside okay so to kind of wrap things up the change is made to
this refresh are small but I think they're an important step in making an
already great ultrabook even better there are some compromises that Dell has
made that still just annoy me in terms of design and ports and webcam placement
but as an overall package you're getting an incredible looking machine that is
honestly probably one of the best Windows laptops that you could go out
and buy today so what do you guys think of the refreshed Dell XPS 13 you like me
a little bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to giving up those full size USB A
ports in favor of USB type-c I know the USB type-c future is coming but leave a
comment down below and let me know also while you're down there click that
subscribe button also hit that Bell icon to make sure you are notified about
upcoming videos that are coming up we got a lot of good stuff in the pipeline
for you guys make sure to be notified that's all I got for today I'm Robert
Rosenfeld with TechnoBuffalo I'll see you the next one